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Leaving a legacy

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Leaving a legacy

We have provided some examples of specimen words you may find useful if you wish to include a bequest to The Donkey Sanctuary in your Will.

Specific legacy

The suggested form of wording for a specific legacy is:

"I give and bequeath unto The Donkey Sanctuary Sidmouth Devon EX10 0NU (a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England & Wales no. 264818) my [… description …] to be applied for its general charitable purposes and I declare that the receipt of the Chief Executive or other proper officer for the time being of The Donkey Sanctuary shall be sufficient discharge to my Trustees."

Pecuniary legacy

The suggested form of wording for a pecuniary legacy is:

"I give and bequeath unto The Donkey Sanctuary Sidmouth Devon EX10 0NU (a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England & Wales no. 264818) the sum of £…………… to be applied for its general charitable purposes and I declare that the receipt of the Chief Executive or other proper officer for the time being of The Donkey Sanctuary shall be sufficient discharge to my Trustees."

Residuary bequest

A residuary bequest is generally of the greatest benefit to our charity as its value increases in line with inflation.

If you wish to leave all the residue of your estate to our charity, the suggested form of wording is:

"Subject to the payment of my funeral and testamentary expenses I give devise and bequeath the residue of my real and personal property of whatsoever nature and wheresoever situate of or to which I shall be entitled at the date of my death to my Trustees upon trust for The Donkey Sanctuary of Sidmouth Devon EX10 0NU (a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England & Wales no. 264818) absolutely to be applied for its general charitable purposes and I direct that the receipt of the Chief Executive or other proper officer for the time being of The Donkey Sanctuary shall be sufficient discharge to my Trustees."

If you wish to leave a share of the residue of your estate to our charity, your solicitor will explain how the bequest should be worded.

Tax benefits

There can be sound financial reasons why it makes sense to leave a legacy to The Donkey Sanctuary in your Will.

If you own your own house, this could well mean that the value of your estate will be above the Inheritance Tax threshold.

You may be able to considerably reduce the amount of tax your estate pays on your death – or even remove it altogether.

As a general rule:

Gifts to registered charities are wholly exempt from Inheritance Tax

If you leave all of your estate to charities, no Inheritance Tax will be paid from your estate at all

If you choose to leave part of your estate to relatives and friends, you can reduce the Inheritance Tax payable by also making a bequest to a registered charity

What’s more, the Budget in March 2011 gave a further incentive to charitable giving, by announcing that if you choose to leave 10% or more of your estate to charity, your estate will benefit from a cut in the actual rate of Inheritance Tax payable.

Specifically, anyone leaving 10% or more of their estate to charity will have their inheritance tax rate reduced from 40% to 36% from April 2012.

This really is great news for charities and a move which we hope will boost significantly the number of people who leave a lasting legacy to their favourite causes. Encouragingly, the Chancellor went on to say in his speech that ‘we want giving 10% to charity in legacies to become the norm’.

If you would like more information about how leaving money to The Donkey Sanctuary can help you reduce Inheritance Tax please contact our Legacy Office on 01395 578222.